According to the old saw, there are only two certain things in life: death and taxes. Unless you happen to be a comic book superhero. Then, it's just taxes.

When it comes to comic book hero death, there's almost no such thing. Really, there's no other entertainment medium in which death is less a cause for drama than mainstream superhero comics. Unless you count video games, but then all you have to do is select "continue" and it's like nothing ever happened.

And yet we still have freakouts when a major character is killed off in comics. Why is that? Is it due to selective amnesia that makes us forget the absurd ways characters have been eliminated and then resurrected?

When death doesn't matter, what does?

This month's demise of Batman's sidekick Robin in DC Comics' Batman Incorporated #8 is slightly different, but only slightly. In part because a lot of people really liked this incarnation of Robin, aka Damian Wayne, the lovechild of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul. Killing off a fan-beloved character is a ballsy, Whedon-esque move.

And also because Robin is - or rather, was - a 10-year-old kid, who is impaled and hoisted on the sword of his mutant clone. He's not the first superkid to die in comic book pages - R.I.P. Aquababy! - but illustrating a tyke's death is a relative rarity.

Still, it's hard to care too deeply about this. By their frequency and longevity, comic book characters go through a constant cyclical process of reinvention, like a snake shedding its skin. Except snakes don't go dig out a long-discarded skin and crawl back inside it.

Damian Wayne isn't the first Robin to be killed off, and two previously dead birds - Jason Todd and Stephanie Brown - have both been un-killed. They join a long, long line of heroes who have bitten the dust and then come back, ranging from Superman and Batman to Captain America and the recently dead-oh-wait-he's-alive Spider-Man.

I'm ancient enough to have been reading X-Men comics when Jean Grey sacrificed herself to destroy the Dark Phoenix entity, one of the most significant superhero deaths of all time. Yet even that didn't stick. The movies are arguably worse: Jean Grey is apparently killed at the end of X2: X-Men United and then again in X-Men: The Last Stand, yet Bryan Singer will be somehow bringing the character back for next year's X-Men: Days of Future Past, along with the apparently not-so-dead-after-all Cyclops and Professor X. But at least there's a time travel component in that movie that might explain it. I hope.

Maybe Sherlock Holmes is to blame. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sent Holmes tumbling to his doom over the Reichenbach Falls in The Final Problem, he thought he was done with the character and could continue with his more serious writing. But the public outcry was so strident (and perhaps the money so compelling) that Conan Doyle reluctantly resurrected his master sleuth.

So don't cry for young Damian Wayne. Whether through reboot, resurrection or retcon, we surely haven't seen the last of him. Instead, cry for the lack of permanence in comic book death. Because no one gets to rest in peace.

WHAT'S NEXT

Hannibal whets appetites

The shot-in-Toronto series Hannibal makes its debut next month on City and NBC, serving as an origin story of sorts for FBI profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) and his relationship with Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen.) And it's actually pretty tasty.

Will Justice be done?

The rumour mill is working overtime to churn out all the fresh gossip about the possible upcoming Justice League movie. But right now, all eyes are this summer's Man of Steel, which is said to be blowing the socks off insiders who've seen it. Kneel before Zod!

iWatch out for this

Rumours are stronger than ever that a new addition to Apple's iFamily could be coming this year in the form of the iWatch, an iOS-powered device you'd wear on your wrist. We're still waiting for that Pebble watch we bought through Kickstarter...

WHAT'S NOW

The other Office reopens

The original and brilliant U.K. version of The Office is getting a mini-comeback with The Office Revisited, in which Ricky Gervais will tell us what David Brent's been up to this past decade. It airs March 15 on BBC as part of Red Nose Day but will surely pop up online.

Mila the good witch

The lovely Mila Kunis is this week's social media darling, thanks to an interview she did with nervous yet bold BBC One radio reporter Chris Stark while promoting Oz the Great and Powerful. (Stark basically asks her out.) Watch here: bit.ly/datemila

A flavourful finish

ABC's cooking competition show The Taste wraps up next week as the final four contestants prepare three dishes for the judges panel, which includes Anthony Bourdain and the lovely, luscious Nigella Lawson.

WHAT'S OVER

Zero Hour flatlines

The conspiracy drama Zero Hour, starring Anthony Edwards (ER), was cancelled by ABC after just three episodes due to bad ratings. Or is that really why it was cancelled? Maybe they were getting too close to the truth and shadowy figures pulled the plug.

Carly Rae hangs up on Boy Scouts

Carly Rae Jepsen, she of the inescapable Call Me Maybe, has pulled out of the Boy Scouts of America National Scout Jamboree in West Virginia this summer because the organization bans openly gay members. Don't call her, she'll call you. Or not.

Harlem Shake it off

OK, that was a lot of fun while it lasted, but it's time to stop. Like Gangnam Style and dancing down the aisle at weddings, the Harlem Shake has run its course. Is your office working on its own Harlem Shake video as we speak? No. Stop. Let it go.

As Advertised in the Edmonton SUN

Dead Robin will, of course, be back

According to the old saw, there are only two certain things in life: death and taxes. Unless you happen to be a comic book superhero. Then, it's just taxes.

When it comes to comic book hero death, there's almost no such thing. Really, there's no other entertainment medium in which death is less a cause for drama than mainstream superhero comics. Unless you count video games, but then all you have to do is select "continue" and it's like nothing ever happened.

And yet we still have freakouts when a major character is killed off in comics. Why is that? Is it due to selective amnesia that makes us forget the absurd ways characters have been eliminated and then resurrected?